1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a board processing apparatus for performing various operations for a board.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a process of mounting various electronic components onto a board includes a plurality of work operations (for example, a solder printing operation of printing cream solder on a board, a component mounting operation of attaching electronic components onto the board, a soldering operation of heating the board with the electronic components mounted thereonto to solder the electronic components onto the board, an inspection operation of inspecting a result of each of the operations, etc.). Such operations for a board are performed using various board processing apparatuses, such as a solder printing machine, a component attaching machine, a reflow furnace and an inspection machine.
As a board processing apparatus, there has been known one type which includes a head unit for performing a predetermined operation for a board, and a moving device for moving the head unit along a guide rail in a uniaxial direction. However, in this moving device, a movement of the head unit is limited within a laying range of the guide rail, so that a region out of the laying range (a region outward of an axial edge face of the guide rail) has to be a dead space around the head unit.
Therefore, in order to eliminate such a dead space around the head unit, for example, a board processing apparatus described in JP 2009-111421A is provided with a two-tiered moving device. The two-tiered moving device includes a first trajectory defining section and a second trajectory defining section each having a guide rail extending in an X-axis direction. The first trajectory defining section is kept at a predetermined position without any movement in the X-axis direction, and the second trajectory defining section is moved in the X-axis direction along the first trajectory defining section. Further, the head unit is moved in the X-axis direction along the second trajectory defining section. In the two-tiered moving device, the second trajectory defining section is moved to a position where it protrudes outwardly from an edge face of the guide rail of the first trajectory defining section, and the head unit is moved to an end of the guide rail of the second trajectory defining section, so that the head unit can reach a position outward of the edge face of the guide rail of the first trajectory defining section.
However, the two-tiered moving device configured to move the second trajectory defining section and the head unit independently requires complicate control. In this regard, there is a need for improvement.